


the happy tully

by mired



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Gen, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-23
Updated: 2012-03-23
Packaged: 2017-11-02 09:46:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/367649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mired/pseuds/mired
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fourteen-year-old Catelyn Tully remains skeptical about whether her young brother has any steel in him at all, behind his constant smiles. Her beloved Uncle Brynden, though, might just change that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the happy tully

Nine years the elder, Catelyn had always felt like Lord Hoster’s true son. She was the firstborn, after all. Edmure was just a boy of five, and she was fourteen, a woman flowered. Catelyn knew that she would soon have to go north with Brandon Stark, and she wanted to get to know young Edmure better before she went. But no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t connect with him. He smiled far too much for her liking. Not serious in the least, she often thought. Not a true Tully.

Since her attempts to speak to Edmure usually ended in failure on her part, Catelyn normally spent her days wandering around Riverrun with Petyr and Lysa. Sometimes they played at kissing, and always, she felt Petyr’s eyes upon her, staring for minutes on end sometimes. Something in his gaze made her stomach squirm in disgust, and she would then go off to find Uncle Brynden and hear his war stories. She was almost grown now, but that didn’t make the tales any less entertaining, even when she’d heard them a thousand times already.

On this particular morning, Cat found her uncle already in full storytelling flow, diddling a grinning Edmure on his lap. She rolled her eyes and sighed.

Not much escaped Brynden’s keen eyes, though.

“Something wrong again, little Cat?” He smiled, the expression lighting up his deep blue eyes. Edmure giggled.

“No…” She wasn’t about to admit her jealousy to her uncle.

Cat sat at Brynden’s feet, as she'd done for the past fourteen years, as he finished his one of his many stories about the War of the Ninepenny Kings. All the while, she looked at Edmure, watching for signs of intelligence, of solemnity. She was forced to conclude that he possessed neither. He’d never be a great lord like her father, or a great warrior like her uncle.

But the longer she looked, the more she noticed the similarities between Edmure and Brynden, similarities that went beyond the Tully hair and eyes.They shared the same smile, the same aura of pure goodness. Catelyn realized that she’d been the one shirking her duty to her family - little Edmure hadn’t done a thing. It was jealousy, all of it. _Perhaps I should give him another chance._ After all, nobody said that a Tully couldn’t be happy.

Gently, Catelyn took Edmure from Brynden’s lap and walked him around Riverrun, taking the time to fully appreciate the boy’s simple joy in life. He talked, and talked, and talked, and Catelyn listened to all of it, and when they returned, Brynden was sitting in the same spot. He winked at Catelyn, and left her to play with Edmure, at the boy’s insistence.


End file.
